As women's fashion styles change and preferences regarding hosiery move away from wearing stockings and pantyhose and toward wearing more socks, retail display space needs likewise change. Pantyhose are often packaged for sale in semi-rigid, envelope-type packages made from cardboard or other similar material. Pantyhose and stocking envelopes are typically displayed for retail viewing either by hanging on a hanger assembly or by standing upright in a hosiery display cabinet. A conventional retail hosiery display cabinet, or fixture, for displaying envelope-type hosiery packages in a standing position includes a display rack having a plurality of rows of compartments oriented in a stair-step, or terraced, fashion.
Hosiery such as socks or knee-high sheer hosiery, for example, are typically packaged in smaller-sized packages than pantyhose and would not be viewable by customers if placed directly in the terraced compartments of a conventional pantyhose display cabinet. In addition, socks are generally packaged for display on a hanger and do not have sufficient product or package rigidity to support the socks in an upright position for organized and convenient retail viewing.
The display portion of such a conventional retail fixture has built-in, or fixed, dimensions for receiving merchandise packages for display. The fixed dimensions restrict the use of such display fixtures to packages whose sizes will fit into the display compartments, or pockets, formed in the display portion of the fixtures. Consequently, the amount of display space that can be utilized in such a fixture for merchandise packages having different sizes is limited.
To accommodate display of packages having sizes for which a display fixture is not intended, the fixture must be modified. Such display fixture modifications often require significant capital expenditures, time, and lost retail display space during modifications to alter the display dimensions. In certain situations, accommodation of retail display space for merchandise packages having various dimensions requires complete disassembly and/or removal of a display fixture and replacement with a fixture having the desired dimensions and configuration.
Some conventional merchandise display unit constructions incorporate various means for adjusting space for displaying merchandise items. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,826 to Wood et al. discloses a slotted frame which can be quickly assembled and dissembled, to which shelves can be attached at varied levels. The '826 patent also discloses a plurality of vertically-spaced bars attachable at different levels on the frame for receiving a merchandise display member, such as a hook. Such systems allow for displaying merchandise of variable heights but do not allow a pre-existing display unit without such a slotted frame to be adapted for packages having varying dimensions.
Another approach to adapting a display system for varying sized items is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,328 to Evenson. The '328 patent discloses a brochure display system including a plurality of interconnectable brochure pockets and variable height brochure support shelves that interconnect with the brochure pockets via notches in the back wall of the pockets. The support shelves can be moved up or down to allow the top edges of brochures having varying heights to be displayed at the same level. A disadvantage of such an approach for adapting a display unit is that the display unit must be configured with notches at the time of manufacture so that support shelves can be moved up or down to accommodate for items having varying heights.
Other conventional merchandise storage/display systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,618 to Norman and U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,783 to Goudreau. The '618 patent discloses a wire grid mounted on a wire frame and a means for supporting containers for storing and/or displaying goods on the wire grid. The means for supporting the containers can include a hook member, such as a flange, spaced from and extending downwardly from the rear of the container for hooking the container onto the wire grid. In another construction, the means for supporting the containers includes a hook-like member adapted to bear on one side of the grid and a means for supporting the goods on the opposite side of the grid.
The '783 patent discloses a wire rack comprising horizontal wires and a means for attaching the horizontal wires to a vertical support means so that the horizontal wires are movable up and down the length of the vertical support means. Support elements such as brackets can be attached to and extend from the horizontal wires to support merchandise for display. The bracket can be moved laterally along the length of the horizontal wires. A disadvantage of these display systems is that the wire racks and/or the merchandise support means must themselves be adjusted to allow for display of packages having varying dimensions, and, as such, are not particularly suited for quickly, easily, or attractively adapting a fixed-dimension display fixture to accommodate such variable-sized packages.
The problem of fixed-dimension display space has been addressed in one approach to adjusting a terraced greeting card display. U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,849 to Hardy, for example, discloses a greeting card display assembly that includes a plurality of pocket-forming members having transversely extending members forming the back, bottom, and front walls of half pockets formed in a stepped relationship. The display assembly of stepped half pockets is attached to a supporting structure. Vertically oriented dividers are placed at desired locations along the width of the transversely extending members so as to accommodate greeting cards of different widths. While this approach accommodates merchandise of different sizes within a terraced rack, such a display structure is suitable only for merchandise and/or merchandise packages having sufficient rigidity to stand upright for retail viewing, for example, an envelope-type hosiery package.
Thus, there is a need for a system for readily adapting a pre-existing, terraced display fixture to display merchandise packages having varying dimensions. There is a need for such a convenient and cost-effective system to readily adapt a retail display fixture to display merchandise packaged in both envelope and hanger style packages having varying dimensions.